Amadeus has reached an agreement to acquire IDEMIA’s public security division for $1.2 billion.

      The agreement would provide the Spanish travel technology firm with an international presence in biometric border control, airport identity systems, and fingerprint databases for law enforcement. A traveler boarding a flight at one of the 250 airports outfitted with IDEMIA biometric gates likely doesn’t consider who owns the facial recognition system confirming their identity. However, Amadeus, the Spanish travel technology company that already manages their reservations, is set to acquire that as well.

      Amadeus has committed to purchasing the public security division of the French biometric company IDEMIA from private equity firm Advent International for $1.35 billion. The announcement made on Wednesday marks a substantial growth in Amadeus’s aspirations for identity infrastructure, reflecting a significant reduction in the ultimate price from the €2 billion to €3 billion valuation Advent had initially sought when selling the asset.

      IDEMIA Public Security represents a major business, servicing over 600 government, state, and federal agencies worldwide, managing biometric implementations at more than 250 airports that support over one billion travelers annually, and facilitating fingerprint and criminal record processing systems in collaboration with the FBI. Additionally, it provides mobile driver’s license programs across several US states and offers border control biometric systems in numerous countries. The division employs around 3,800 people globally and possesses the intellectual property for the biometric algorithms utilized across the broader IDEMIA group.

      Founded in 1987 by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa, and SAS as a reservations technology service, Amadeus has spent the years developing itself into the leading global distribution system for air travel, commanding more than 40% of the GDS market. Recently, it has been branching out beyond ticketing into airport operations technology. A notable milestone was the €320 million acquisition of Vision-Box in 2024, a Portuguese company specializing in biometric passenger processing systems.

      Integrating IDEMIA Public Security would significantly advance that ambition. While Vision-Box focuses on passenger-oriented biometric kiosks at boarding gates, IDEMIA PS encompasses a broader identity infrastructure: border control, law enforcement databases, civil identity document issuance, and digital identity credentials. Including it in Amadeus’s existing offerings would create a vertically integrated airport technology entity that spans from the moment a passenger books a ticket to when their face is scanned at the border.

      Advent International put IDEMIA up for sale in 2023, initially aiming for up to €6 billion for the entire group. It subsequently divided the business into three distinct divisions. IDEMIA Smart Identity was sold to the French state-backed IN Groupe in a deal valued at up to €1 billion, finalized in mid-2025. IDEMIA Public Security emerged as the principal remaining asset. During the sales process, French defense firm Thales also showed interest in the asset, although it seems they did not succeed.

      This transaction is part of a larger trend of consolidation in the airport and identity technology industry, driven by the swift growth of biometric passenger processing and government digital identity initiatives globally. IDEMIA Public Security frequently ranks highly in NIST’s fingerprint algorithm assessments, offering Amadeus a significant technical advantage in the US government and law enforcement markets, as well as the travel sector.

      Specifically for the EU, this deal has regulatory implications. The public security capabilities of IDEMIA involve some of the most critical aspects of digital identity infrastructure, including biometric surveillance at borders, national identity document issuance, and law enforcement databases. A strategic acquisition of such infrastructure by a Spanish-based firm, which ultimately requires regulatory approval across various jurisdictions, will likely draw examination from competition authorities and national security reviewers.

      Amadeus reported revenues exceeding €6.5 billion in fiscal 2025, marking a 6.1% increase year on year, with adjusted EBIT of €1.9 billion. The company recently revealed a €500 million share buyback program, indicating that it approached the IDEMIA negotiations from a position of financial strength.